A Marvelous May
24 May 2010 Leave a Comment
in Blog Updates, Project Juxtapose, Study Abroad, Travel Tags: adventure, Egypt, London
I haven’t had time to update my blog in weeks. To show just how busy I’ve been, here’s a list of things I’ve done in May alone:
- Spent a weekend in a manor at Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales
- Wrote a 2,250 word paper about Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Wrote a 2,750 word paper about W.B. Yeats
- Went horseback riding around the Gower peninsula of Swansea
- Watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
- Spent two days touring London
- Completed the Shadow Project for my RA position next year
- Went to the Gower Heritage Center for their yearly Welsh Cheese and Cider Festival
- Explored Gower by foot and climbed up into a rocky cove in a skirt and leggings
- Danced Salsa for the last two times
- Ate at the Carvery, a weekly tradition, for the last two times
- Ended the semester at Joe’s Ice Cream parlor with Angela (study abroad adviser) the way I began it in January
- Studied for and took a final exam on The Algerian War
- Said goodbye to all my new international and British friends
- Packed up everything I own, with enormous help from Laura and Angela (flatmates) and took a bus to London
I’ll try to go through my experiences and properly write about them when I’m back home in about 3 weeks.
Right now, I’m sitting in my friend’s London living room. I spent the night here and I’ll be leaving for Heathrow Airport in half an hour. I’m flying to Egypt to be a tourist and to visit mainly my mom’s side of the family, who I’m barely familiar with. I’ll be there for two weeks.
My trip to Egypt also marks the official beginning of Project Juxtapose: the writing project I’m undertaking my senior year as an Undergraduate Research Scholar. Here is the abstract:
I plan to write a series of creative nonfiction essays, wherein I relate my parents’ emigration from Egypt and their experiences in America over the past 20 years. Combing through a range of human emotions, I will illustrate real life experiences in narrative form. I will explore how my being raised between two cultures has shaped who I am. I will also explore my relationship with my parents by aligning the parallels between my mother’s life and my own, and mapping out the intersections between me and my father. The familial archeology will take me to Alexandria, Egypt, where my parents grew up and the majority of my relatives still reside. I will follow their journey across the United States, from Milwaukee, where I was born, to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and the cities that witnessed my growth around Maryland. A semester studying abroad has played a crucial role in how I relate to and understand my parents and their experiences. My explorations in the United Kingdom will be woven into the bigger story about culture fusion, strength, struggle, love, and family. Writing a memoir will lead to a study of memoir itself. For a separate analytical essay, I will research and gather critical materials on the craftsmanship of writing life stories and the memoir’s role in cultural awareness. I will also read memoirs by other individuals who have had to balance two separate worlds and harmonize them into one life.
I’ll be blogging about the process over the next year. =)
~ Salma
Twenty Ten
01 Jan 2010 1 Comment
in Daily Encounters Tags: Egypt, newyears, reflection, studyabroad
My mom tells me that, in Egypt, people celebrate the new year by standing at their balconies and breaking the old dishes. Adults and children hurl the cracked plates, tea cups, saucers, and bowls, and the streets are a symphony of shattering glass. Anything that’s stained or chipped is sent flying over the railing to meet its end with a smash. One platter becomes twenty splinters, adding to a sea of shards glimmering in the Arabian moonlight. Above, families cheer and sing and laugh. Everyone knows better than to walk the streets on New Years. The last time my mom was a part of that Egyptian tradition was in 1987, so things may have changed since then.
Rather than listing resolutions for 2010, I went through my 2009 calendar and picked out the most significant experiences, learned lessons, and accomplishments from each month. Each year seems to be packed with more and more, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s easy to be thankful for the good times, but it’s so much harder to appreciate the bad times. The combination of highs and lows sketches out the portrait of who you are, what you know, and how you see the world. So I’m happy for the hardships I had too.
I’m beginning 2010 by studying abroad in Wales. I’ll be archiving my trip in blog posts to share with family, friends, and everyone else. =)
Happy Twenty Ten, everyone!
~ Salma
